[LoveUSA]

I know...I'm an idiot.

Hopefully I'm not the only idiot who gets scammed because I was raised with Christian compassion.

Tell me your stories, I could use a good laugh.

[daniel1212]

There are the genuine needy, even if there are likely no Lazarus types in America, and then there was the one stemming who explained “I need to do this to pay my cable TV bill.

And another who asked for a dollar to buy some orange juice. I told him to go over to the open fruit market and he could buy (then) a dozen tangerines for a dollar. He looked at me incredulously and said, “You mean peel them?”

Then there was the homeless type lady to whom i offered free bagels to, who then said, “Do you have cream cheese?” When i said no, she waled away.

We are to remember the poor, but in America even most of the poor are rich by normal standards, while the gov can be expected to make it more difficult for churches and private charities to help the needy (such as by eliminating charitable deductions) as it seeks to be look to as God, as in Communism.

[Straight Vermonter]

When asked by people if they should give to the poor, John Vianney would often reply with a smile: "We will have to answer for why we did or didn't give, and the poor will have to answer for what they did with what is given them."

[Nuocmam]

In the late 50’s, I worked the midnight shift in downtown Detroit. It was not uncommon when coming into work at night or getting out in the morning to be approached and asked “Can you spare a dime for a cup of coffee?” One morning a guy staggered up to me and asked “Can you give me a dollar, I need a drink bad?” Believe me, he really looked like he was in need. He got $5 for being truthful.

[little jeremiah]

Giving money to professional beggars is not any different from giving booze to alcoholics or heroin to heroin addicts. Of course often the scammers are one of those categories as well. It’s compassion mixed with ignorance to give to such people, it does only harm.

Real compassion would be directing them to some kind of Gospel Mission or Salvation Army, those organizations know how to deal with scammer homeless/beggars and can help them change for the better. Giving them money merely keeps them in their dishonesty and often lives of crime.

[mountainfolk]

Compassion. That is the word that recalled a conversation I recently had with a friend who had an experience with Compassion. They told me of a close younger relative who they met after many years and who acknowledged that their occupation was PANHANDLER. Asked how they made much of a living that way, the response was, “I never have less than $150 on me”. Then they explained that there were COMPASSIONATE people who always gave when asked.
Personally, I do not do this type of compassion because of so much personal observation of scam at low and high levels.

[exit82]

BTTT.

Thanks for starting a thread with so much wisdom in it.